


Mama, I can hear you a-crying

by DarkHarmony



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 07:51:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15747453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkHarmony/pseuds/DarkHarmony
Summary: May Parker confronts Tony about getting her baby killed. JARVIS shows May how badly Tony has been doing. May realizes her faults and comforts Tony.





	Mama, I can hear you a-crying

**Author's Note:**

> Basically just a Fix- It.   
> It's my first work ever, don't be gentle. Tell me whatever I need to improve on.  
> Comments are like heroin to me, thanks.  
> Hope this makes Infinity W*r trauma a little better.

O Mama, I’m in fear for my  
Life from the long arm  
Of the Law.  
Law man has put an end to my   
Running and I’m so far  
From my home.  
O Mama, I can hear you  
A-crying you're so  
Scared and all alone.  
Hangman is comin’ down   
From the gallows and I  
Don’t have very long  
‘Renegade’, Styx.

May Parker was at the Stark residence, and she was pissed. To be completely honest with herself, though, she was grieving. The day Tony Stark had come to her house and told her everything that had happened on Titan, her life had ended. First her husband and now her nephew- her son. She had absolutely nothing left, no one left. In that grief, she had fallen into Tony’s chest, too exhausted to do anything more than cry and Tony had let her. But not one tear had slipped out of that bastard’s eyes. Her entire world had ended and Tony Stark made her a glass of chocolate milk and walked out, unaffected.

  
She stormed through the front door and the security guard half got up but seeing that it was her, he sat back down. At the next door, a male AI Interface scanned her. “Mrs. Parker,” it said in a compassionate British voice- and for a split second she wondered how a machine, designed by Tony Stark nonetheless, could be compassionate in the first place - but didn’t open the door. “You are unauthorized to enter.”

  
“Call your boss. Tell him it’s me,” she snarled at the nearest camera, and she was surprised to see it… flinch? Did a camera just flinch? “And tell him I will break down his- his fortress clad in security if he doesn’t let me in. He killed my son, he owes me.”

  
For a brief second, there was a pause and May debated what, exactly, she would do if Tony didn’t give her access. Iron Man’s home was protected against the likes of international terrorists and the Avengers after the fall out, how would a mere grieving mother penetrate that sort of security? But she didn’t have to ponder for long. The same voice said, “You now have access to the entirety of the Stark Residence” and opened the doors.

  
“Where is Stark?” May asked the AI.

  
“Follow me,” it replied and the room went dark. Then the walls started lighting up and May followed corridor after lit up corridor until she got to the basement. It was not how normal basements were- dark and gloomy. This was lit up and the walls were glass. There were a thousand tools lying around and in the middle of all the tech was Tony Stark, wearing a black tank top and khaki pants.

  
“Hey, May!” he greeted with false cheer. “What’s up?”

  
“WHAT’S UP?” she yelled. “Peter died, Stark. My son, my baby died and all you have to say is ‘What’s up?’ He’s gone!” May broke down, collapsing against Butterfingers, who lay a sympathetic claw on her shoulder. It was a testament of how far she’d fallen that she didn’t even look at it. “Peter is gone and he’s never coming back and what do I do now? You- you are untouched by anything- by everything. A child died in agony and fear and not only did you let him die, but you don’t even care.”

  
YOU, who had been helping Tony with his latest project, started backing off very slowly. If an AI could have been capable of maintaining an awkward silence, J.A.R.V.I.S did. Tony took two hesitating steps towards May, and when she didn’t flinch, he lay one hand on the shoulder unoccupied by Butterfingers. This time, she pulled her shoulder away and he let his hand drop to his side. “May-” he stopped, abruptly, and took a step back. “Mrs. Parker, it was never my intention to hurt Peter-”

  
“Your intention?” she cried. YOU brought a chair and kept it behind May, just in case she collapsed. “You think I care what your intention was? You did what you did and in that, Peter died. My son died, alone and afraid. On some- some unknown planet. I buried an empty casket two days ago but oh, I should have thought about how nice your intentions were.”

  
“I’m sorry,” Tony sighed, turning away. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  
“Yeah, I bet you are!” May stood up straight, Butterfingers backed off. She glanced at it and, against her better judgement, patted the top of its claw. She wasn’t even surprised when it leaned in to the affectionate touch. When she got to the door, she looked back at him. “Did you ever care?” she whispered, but didn’t wait for answer before slamming the door shut and walking away.

  
The AI led her through more corridors, but wasn’t leading out. It led her to a smallish room, well, small compared to the Lab. It was still bigger than half her apartment. “Where are you taking me?”

  
“Sir did not authorize me to show you these, but I think you need to see them anyway.”

  
“See what?” she asked as the door closed behind her and all the lights went out.  
“This-” it said, and the room lit up as a video started to play. It was Tony, walking into the lab. The date and time stamp made it clear that this was several days ago. She had been putting up ‘Missing’ fliers all over town with half the population doing the same.

  
“F.R.I.D.A.Y, activate the Edwin protocol,” he huffed.

  
A female voice confirmed and then it changed to a male voice. “Glad to be back at your service, Sir.”

  
“J.A.R.V.I.S!” Tony smiled brokenly, looking lovingly at a camera. “God, I’ve missed you.”  
“As have I, Sir.” Tony smiled, caressing a nearby table.

  
“I have no one else left, not anymore,” Tony breathed. “Pep-Pepper’s gone. Snapped away. I couldn’t stop Peter from dying. He begged me Jar!” Tony’s knees gave out and he let himself fall to the ground. Butterfingers came close and patted Tony’s head with its claw. “He begged and begged me to stop it, to save him but I couldn’t. He apologized to me, Jar! And I am so lost now. What- what do I do? What can I do?”

  
J.A.R.V.I.S waited for Tony to start crying and then an armor-suit came up and gave Tony its hand. Tony took it and stood up, leaning against it. The suit wrapped him in an embrace and let Tony cry against it as it ran soothing hands down his back. “Sir, you will do what you always do,” the AI replied. “Find a way to save them. Save them all. Bring them back, Tony.”

  
Tony looked into the suit’s eyes as a reflex and then smiled realizing his mistake. The suit didn’t have eyes. It was a suit. “Yeah,” Tony whispered anyway. “Call Bruce and Shuri, Wong, and- and Steve. Call them all. We need all the help we can get."

  
“Are you sure?” asked J.A.R.V.I.S. “Steve did leave you to die in Siberia.”

  
“Doesn’t matter!” cried Tony. “Dying then would have hurt less than having Pete die. If I can’t save anyone else, if I can’t bring back Strange and Quill, hell, even Barnes- Bucky… if I can't bring them back, I’m bringing back Pete if it kills me.”

  
“It might,” J.A.R.V.I.S said.

  
“Let it!” he firmly said. “Good riddance, I say.”

  
“Tony!”

  
“Jarvis, please.” Tony looked at the camera. He looked devastated with tears streaking down his face. “He begged me. ‘I don’t want to go’ he said. I have to. And if all it takes is my life, then I say the world would be better for it. Everyone but Rhodey hates me anyway. Might as well bring back someone who is loved. God, Jar! I’ll have to tell May. I’ll have to tell her all of it. How will I survive telling her that I got her son killed?”

  
“He would have died anyway,” J.A.R.V.I.S reasoned. “You wouldn’t have blamed yourself any less.”

  
“He was my responsibility!”

  
“And you are mine!” J.A.R.V.I.S yelled. “Don’t ever forget that!”

  
“I don’t J.A.R.V.I.S.” Tony visibly straightened. “I know, okay. I do. You were more a father to me than Howard, you know that. But you- the real you- would have given your life for mine. Won’t you give me the same right? Trade my life for my- for Peter’s?”

  
The suit of armor ran a hand through Tony’s hair. “Of course, Tony.”

  
The video feed shut off. The next feed started up, but it was just a fast forward through Tony’s life. He would sleep for hours on end and then work for days. He was constantly caffeinated and May didn’t especially trust the little white pills he kept taking. He would finish a project, get a bottle of whiskey and down it and then melt into the floor. In all this time, all he ate were 3 sandwiches that Sgt. Rhodes brought him. Somedays he would cry as he worked. The only bath he got was when the fire alarm went off and Butterfingers doused him in fire-extinguisher foam.

  
May finally understood what J.A.R.V.I.S was trying to show her, but when the video feed cut to the present and she saw Tony curled up, kissing his left hand as he cried, she couldn’t just stand there. J.A.R.V.I.S understood, but softly said, “You’re not the only one who lost a son that day.”

  
“Take me to him, J.A.R.V.I.S,” May said.

  
“At once, Mrs. Parker,” and the AI led her back to the Lab.

  
This time, it did not inform Tony of her arrival so he did not have the time to arrange everything. He looked up at her through tears and tried to wipe them away before standing up, but she was quicker. She sat down next to him and wrapped him in her arms. He didn’t even question it, leaning in to any affection he could get. She let him cry on her shoulders and cried with him.

  
Looking up at YOU, she said, “Order a pizza, loaded with meat.”

  
Tony looked at her questioningly and she smiled at him. “You haven’t eaten in days. When you bring Peter back, and I know you will, you need to be in a good condition, or he would never forgive himself.”

  
“What if I can’t?” he brokenly asked.

  
“You still need food, Tony.” She kissed his forehead. They stayed silent for a while before May looked at him. “I’m sorry I blamed you for what happened.”

  
“No, it was my fault.”

  
“It wasn’t,” she said, firmly, shaking her head. “It was the alien’s- Thanos’ fault. It was simply easier to blame you, because you are concrete. It’s easier to say that if Peter would never had met you, he’d be alive. He wouldn’t be. He was dead the second the spider bit him. If he hadn’t gone with you, he would have been webbing up New York. When all the people started disappearing, he might have gotten hit by a car, a truck, who even knows? If nothing happened, he would still have died- but he would have truly been alone. He wouldn’t have had you.”

  
Tony looked sideways at her, as if that thought had never occurred to him. “I’m sorry,” he said anyway.

  
“There is nothing to forgive,” May smiled back. “But if there was, I would have forgiven you.” She got up and pulled him up, making him sit down on the couch. “You may be Tony Stark, but you are going to do exactly as I say. You are going to eat the pizza, then you're going to get 8 hours of sleep. When you no longer look like an extra from The Walking Dead, you're going to work on bringing our boy back, got it?”

  
Tony smiled. “Pepper would say the same thing.”

  
“Then you married a smart woman, indeed,” smiled May. “Tell her that when you get her back. And don’t try any tricks, mister. J.A.R.V.I.S, please inform me if Tony gets self-destructive again.”

  
“Most certainly, Mrs. Parker,” J.A.R.V.I.S replied.

  
“Wow, you got J.A.R.V.I.S picking sides!” Tony smirked. “You traitor!” he shot at J.A.R.V.I.S without menace.

  
“There is only one side Tony,” May said, touching his shoulder. “Yours. I get that, now.”  
Tony smiled and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

When the pizza arrived, Tony graciously paid for it even though May asked to split the bill. Tony told her that human company was more than reward enough, but May made him promise to go out to a take-out place near their house, Peter’s favorite. They talked for a while and then May made Tony go to sleep. She watched over him, running soothing circles over his back when he started to have nightmares. He slept for 12 hours, May marathoned ‘Supernatural’ on Peter’s Netflix account in that time.

  
She started showing up more and more at the Stark Residence. The walls became more and more familiar to her. Slowly, she stopped going home. Mostly, she would sleep in one of the many other rooms. Others came over and made their home as well. Steve and Natasha mostly stayed away, having nothing great to contribute towards this. When Princess Shuri joined in, properly joined in after grieving King T’Challa, a whole new side of Tony came out. He worked with her ceaselessly, and May had to regularly scold them for not getting enough sleep. May had already seen Tony’s brilliance at work, but Shuri was just as good, if not better. The power, the money and the genius had not gone to her head, nevertheless. She was always humble and the two worked well together. Thor and Bruce showed up next. When Wong came, saying he had handed the ‘Sanctum Sanctorum’ to someone else, and that he was going to focus on this mission, a new ray of hope shone on the Avengers. May saw how much Tony loved the challenge now that he had good allies.

  
One day Rhodey came up to her and quietly thanked her. She tried to shake it off, but he hugged her and said nothing more. May smiled to herself. Yeah, they were going to get everyone back. Peter was going to smile at her, once more. No matter what happened next, they would all be just fine.


End file.
